Pickleball Singles Rules: How to Play 1v1

Singles pickleball is played on the same 20 by 44 foot court as doubles, under the same rules. What changes is the count. Each side has one player, only one person serves each turn, and the score is called with two numbers. You serve from the right when your score is even and from the left when it's odd.

What stays the same

Almost everything. The 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook uses one court for both formats (Rule 3.A.1), so there's no narrower singles court like in tennis. You play the full width. The pickleball and tennis courts compared shows the tennis singles court next to this one.

• The kitchen is still 7 feet deep, and you still can't volley in it.
• The two-bounce rule still applies. The serve and the return must each bounce.
• The serve has the same motion rules and the same target.
• A game still goes to 11, and you still have to win by 2.

If any of that is fuzzy, the serving rules and kitchen rules cover it. The rest of this page is about what's different.

Where do you serve from in singles?

Your own score tells you where to stand. Serve from the right box when your score is zero or even. Serve from the left box when it's odd (Rule 5.A.1). The serve goes diagonally, so a serve from your right box is received in your opponent's right box.

You keep serving until you lose a rally. Each time you win a point you move to the other side. There's no second server and no second chance. Lose a rally and it's a side out, so the serve goes straight to your opponent.

Here's how a service turn looks:

Your opponent now serves and calls their own score first, so it's "0-2". Zero is even, so they serve from their right.

How is singles scored?

The server calls two numbers, their own score and then the receiver's. A game starts at "0-0". That's all there is to it, because singles has no server number. The game still goes to 11, win by 2. The scoring guide walks through a full game, including doubles, if you want to compare. Some clubs and tournaments try rally scoring instead, where the winner of every rally gets a point. The rally scoring page scores the same rallies both ways.

Where to stand during a rally

Once the serve is hit, you can stand anywhere on your end of the court. You're covering a half court that is 20 feet wide and 22 feet deep, by yourself.

That's a lot of ground. A good habit is to walk back to the middle of the court after every shot. From the middle you have the same distance to run to either side.

Mistakes that come up

Forgetting to switch sides after a point is the classic one. If you serve from the wrong box, your opponent can stop play, and if they're right, the rally is replayed (Rule 5.C.1.a). If nobody notices until the rally is over, the result stands.

The call trips people up too. The server's score always comes first, so after a side out the two numbers swap places.

Last, the kitchen. There's no partner to remind you, so check your own feet after every volley near the net.

Singles questions

Do you get two serves in singles?

No. You get one serve per turn and one attempt at it. Win the rally and you serve again from the other side. Lose it, and the serve goes to your opponent.

Is skinny singles the same thing?

Nearly. The 2026 rulebook includes a half-court format called mini-singles (Rule 14.B), where only the in-play half of the court counts. "Skinny singles" is the everyday name for it, and groups vary the details, so agree the boundaries before you start. Regular singles uses the full court. The skinny singles guide explains the court, serving and scoring.

Can you play singles on a doubles court?

Yes, it's the same court. Singles and doubles share one court size, so you don't need to mark new lines.

Try it

A quick way to learn the pattern is to play a few games against the computer and watch which side the server uses at each score. Pickleball Game is a free pickleball video game with a singles mode at three difficulty levels, and the rules page shows the court and the serving boxes.